1. I'm an FFFL: Fifty-two-year-old Formerly Fat Lady.
2. My endurance is more than ok, I'm a long-distance recreational cyclist and I do pretty well.
3. I've been Crossfitting for about 6 months, and it's very clear to me that my (lack of) strength is my limiting factor in a lot of workouts.
4. I'm currently suffering a bit of overuse which I feel mostly in my tendons and joints, not my muscles, per se. (Tendinitis of the left elbow, a bit of tenderness in the left knee.)
5. I am status-post surgery 14 months ago for two herniated discs at C5/6 and C6/7, and it's left me with a small motor deficit on the left side...(hey, maybe that's why I have developed the tendinitis there!). It means I have to be very careful with a neutral spine when I lift, so i can't push heavier than my form can sustain.

1. If you've coached (or are) a weightlifting female, is there anything about the Starting Strength progressions that need to be modified? I'm thinking given how skittish I am about getting hurt that I should not go up the ladder quite so fast.

2. Given the limitations I've noted above, is there anything I shouldn't do?

3. Is there anything I can do for the elbow tendinitis when I lift? For example, yesterday I was doing push-jerks (with supervision) and while I could do the lift, it hurt my left elbow (medial aspect in anatomic position) like the dickens bringing the bar back down to my chest.

4. Any general tips for me starting out would be greatly appreciated. I am very ambivalent about weightlifting. I really want to get stronger, but I'm pretty skittish. I hate weightlifting. I love having lifted.

In regards to the elbow and tendon soreness. I found that the only time that my soreness would go away is if i would lay off for about a week or so and let it heal....if i kept going it would just get more sore or not go away. NOt a good thing. Maybe take a recovery week were you just focus on conditioning and not so difficult or heavy lifts as Cross Fit is a mixture of both. As far as the advice for the heavy lifting i would say let the elbow heal then slowly get into the heavy lifts as much as your body can help. I need to put some size weight on as most of it is eating i am going to do a black box type routine were i lift heavy on certain days then more conditioned type routines on others such as:
ME / CF / ME / REST / ME / CF / REST
or some variation. If you are working out an affiliate crossfit site im sure they could help ease you into some heavier lifting since you have the back problems. Im sure others will chime in with advice. Good luck!
casey

Why worry about fat loss at bodyweight 145 since you have other priorities of higher importance. BW 145 lb and height 67” puts you at BMI of 22.7. That is as good as anyone wishes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Susie Rosenberg

1. If you've coached (or are) a weightlifting female, is there anything about the Starting Strength progressions that need to be modified?

Before considering any weight training, you should master training with your bodyweight and stretching. You could do all exercises without machines or free weights until your range of motion is strengthened around major joints.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Susie Rosenberg

2. Given the limitations I've noted above, is there anything I shouldn't do?

You should never lift weights without general and local warm up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Susie Rosenberg

3. Is there anything I can do for the elbow tendinitis when I lift? For example, yesterday I was doing push-jerks ?

Pushing or jerking on inflamed elbow aggravates the injury. Give your elbows few weeks of rest and train something else until all signs of inflammation and pain subside. You could still train the shoulders and upper body without using the elbows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Susie Rosenberg

4. Any general tips for me starting out would be greatly appreciated. I am very ambivalent about weightlifting. I really want to get stronger, but I'm pretty skittish. I hate weightlifting. I love having lifted.

Weightlifting does not have to entail lifting free weights in situations of rehabilitation or learning the art of lifting. A lot of Pilate exercises and low impact aerobics produce the same outcome of free weightlifting yet with safer results and consistent progress.

More or fast is not always better. Best of luck.
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Mohamed F. El-Hewie

If you haven't been doing anything for your joints/tendons/connective tissue you should. Do foam rolling, tennis ball work and massage around the elbow especially the medial epicondyle. 4 of the 6 forearm flexors attach there and it's very easy to get tendonitis. Anytime I'm not doing anything during the day I usually start self massaging, and it has helped significantly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Susie Rosenberg

1. If you've coached (or are) a weightlifting female, is there anything about the Starting Strength progressions that need to be modified? I'm thinking given how skittish I am about getting hurt that I should not go up the ladder quite so fast.

Main thing you have to worry about is the 1x5 DL at the end of the week (as you already mentioned the tingliness in another thread) as well as placement of the bar for squats. Rip recommends low bar so it probably won't be near the lower cervical vertebrae.

I highly doubt any other exercises will affect it that much. Try to keep the head in a neutral position though.

The only other things I have to say is just take it slower than a younger person would. Your recovery abilities are not as good as your average teenager or low-20s guy who is doing this program. You can afford not to go after it as aggressively as they do and your joints will probably like you for that.

Before you start anything it's always best to take a light intensity week just to give your body time to recovery from your previous training and to let small injuries heal so you can go into the next program fresh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mohamed F. El-Hewie

Why worry about fat loss at bodyweight 145 since you have other priorities of higher importance. BW 145 lb and height 67” puts you at BMI of 22.7. That is as good as anyone wishes.

BMI is a joke. Especially for more athletic people.. which most if not all of us on here are.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mohamed F. El-Hewie

A lot of Pilate exercises and low impact aerobics produce the same outcome of free weightlifting yet with safer results and consistent progress.

Apparently you haven't heard of CrossFit the program. Not crossfit isn't cross training.

And no, pilates and aerobic work does not produce the same results as weightlifting. That's just foolish.

Susie,
I'd highly reconsider the long-distance cycling with your recent neck issue. Long durations of time in cervical hyperextension isn't going to help matters at all, nor is riding with your c-spine in neutral (assuming you don't want to run into things!).

Steven, do you have an easily accessed link you could share with me about how to use foam rollers and tennis balls? I have no idea what to do with them.

Dr. G, I honestly can't give up cycling, I love it too much. I don't race, I just ride. I don't use my drops, and I have the bars set up relatively high---no racer would position them as I do. I'm pretty comfortable on my bike.

I think I'm gonna give myself a wee bit of time off from the high volume Crossfit stuff, do the lifts without stressing the elbows, try the self-massage, and take it really slowly.

I think I will enjoy the whole process more. Getting strong for me is going to be more like running a marathon than a sprint, you should pardon the analogy.

Actually having someone massage you is better than self massage.. if you can. I really need to get a girlfriend for this purpose alone, haha.

As for foam rolling here's something to get you started I just googled. Really all you do is work your soft tissue with the stuff it's fairly simple and you can just apply the same techniques to every part of the body:http://www.youth-soccer-fitness.com/foam-roll.html

1. If you've coached (or are) a weightlifting female, is there anything about the Starting Strength progressions that need to be modified? I'm thinking given how skittish I am about getting hurt that I should not go up the ladder quite so fast.

2. Given the limitations I've noted above, is there anything I shouldn't do?

3. Is there anything I can do for the elbow tendinitis when I lift? For example, yesterday I was doing push-jerks (with supervision) and while I could do the lift, it hurt my left elbow (medial aspect in anatomic position) like the dickens bringing the bar back down to my chest.

4. Any general tips for me starting out would be greatly appreciated. I am very ambivalent about weightlifting. I really want to get stronger, but I'm pretty skittish. I hate weightlifting. I love having lifted.

Susie

1) i wish i had been able to stick to the SS program, id probably would have achieved some nice gains. i just liked oly and cf too much to have stuck it out. anyway, i started SS and found that i could not keep pace with the continual increase in weight every session. you'll just know, by exertion, when increasing the weight for a set of 5 just isn't feasible. in those instances, i just repeated the last session's weight. a set of fractionals would have been nice, especially for the press, as well.

2) how is your form? given your limitations from surgery, are you able to achieve proper structural alignment in the DL/squat? do you have limited flexibility from soft tissue elsewhere? i ask because until i worked on my flexibility and got soft tissue work.... i was scared of heavy squats and dl's out of fear of injury. but once i felt solid in the position, lifting heavy feels muscularly tough... not injury inducing.

3) i love CF, but i really shy away from the high-rep long duration wods. i generally stick to sub 10 min - sub 15 wods. like others said, you may want to back off CF all the time to reduce tendonitis/overuse issues. ive found you can maintain a decent amount of GPP on 2-3 wods/ week.... where again, these would be 21-15-9 couplets/triplets... not angie, murph, etc.